^ 



R 5334 
H6 
:opy 1 



jfortttutie 

1826-1920 

T 



" 'Tis n't life that matters; 

't is the courage you bring to it.' 

- Hugh Walpole. 



HUGH WALPOLE STUMBLES ifortituDe 
UPON PRICELESS LITERARY 
TREASURE IN A SAN FRAN- 
CISCO BOOK SHOP: Pays a Big 
Sum for Long-lost Letters of Sir Wal- 
ter Scott— ^«/Aor^ IVho Owns World's 
Finest Scott Colledion, by a Strange Coin- 
cidence Ends Search of Years 

by 
Ernest J. Hopkins 

in San Francisco Bulletin of 
February 13,1 920 



Printed for John Howell 
by John Henry Nash, San Francisco 

1920 






^m^~ 



APR IS '5^ 



THE long arm of coincidence, JFortitttDe 
stretching across an ocean, a 
continent and a century of 
time, has seleded San Fran- 
cisco as the one spot on the 
earth's surface for Hugh Walpole, the 
eminent English novelist, to stumble 
squarely on his heart's desire. 

By one of those freaks of chance that 
makes the life of the colledor a continual 
extra-hazardous romantic risk, Walpole 
is now the proud owner of a literary treas- 
ure for which he has hunted many years— 
ever since he began to amass England's 
largest colledion of old editions and 
manuscript of Sir Walter Scott. 

Nearly 150 pages of Sir Walter Scott's 
letters and memoranda, written to John 
Gibson, his attorney, during the famous 



if ortttuOe financial battle which ended Scott's life, 
will leave San Francisco in Walpole's 
trunk when he departs. 

In consideration, he will leave behind 
him a round sum: something under 
^5000, but not very far under. 

And you would n't have picked the 
^^ Wild West," off hand, as the most 
likely point of jundion for a heap of 
century-old manuscript which originally 
came from London, and a distinguished 
London literary man who had wanted 
those particular letters ever since his 
boyhood. But, likely or not, that is just 
what has happened, as follows: 

Three days ago,Walpole dropped into 
the rare-book shop of John Howell on 
Post street, to keep a luncheon engage- 
ment. 



I was to be one of the guests, and— i?ortitttDe 
as usual — I was ten minutes late. In 
those ten minutes the strange thing 
happened. 

On Howell's desk lay a stack of 
neatly written letters, in a small, strong 
handwriting, by no means easy for 
modern eyes to read. Walpole glanced 
at the pile of papers and exclaimed: 

** Where on earth did you get those?" 

Howell replied they had been brought 
in two days before — only two days — 
by a gentleman whose grandfather had 
been Scott's lawyer. 

" You do n't mean these are Scott's let- 
ters to JohnGibson, who handled Scott's 
affairs after the famous failure of James 
Ballantyne and Archibald Constable, 
the publishers? "asked Walpole. 

3 



iFortitutJe "That's precisely what they are," 
replied Howell. "Gibson's grandson 
brought them in only day before yes- 
terday. He said his mother had had the 
letters all her life and now wanted to sell 
them." 

" Hm,"remarked Walpole. "You may 
not know that I possess the largest col- 
ledion of Scott's manuscript and letters 
in England. 

"If these particular letters are what 
they seem to be, they 're the ones I 've 
wanted the most of all." 

And thereby hang several tales -good 
ones, too. For of all episodes in English 
literary history this of Scott's financial 
heroism is the one that most deeply ap- 
peals to the man who wrote"Fortitude." 

You may recall the opening words of 



"Fortitude," regarded by manyasWal- ifoititttDe 
pole's masterpiece: 

"'T is n't life that matters; 'tis the 
courage you bring to it." 

When a novelist has that theme in 
him, it is small wonder that he will pay a 
round price for letters written by the 
master-author whose life, at its climax, 
furnished the finest record of courage 
in literary history. 

Sir Walter, as shown by the Gibson 
letters, had legal obligations of ^150,000 
as a firm member of James Ballantyne 
dC Co., printers. When the house failed 
for ^600,000, he would not agree to 
bankruptcy proceedings or a partial set- 
tlement, but pledged himself to repay 
every dollar. It killed him ; the debt was 
finally paid from his life insurance. 



ifortittttie "'T is n't life that matters; 'tis the 
courage you bring to it." 

Among the letters is one that shows 
the cheery spirit in which Scott took 
even such a matter as the sale of his 
furniture: 

*^ I ask it to be advertised as the furni- 
ture in No. 39, lately occupied by Sir 
W.S. Your delicacy, Iknow, would bog- 
gle at this, but mine does not. My dis- 
pleasure is, that I am not able to pay 
everyone their own — not on the meas- 
ures necessary to effed payment. I have 
some reason to think that if the public 
are aware it is mine better prices may be 
given. Some folks are anxious to have 
even trifling articles belonging to those 
who have, right or wrong, made some 
noise in the world. I heard a fellow pass- 

6 



ing the house say : ' 'Od, I '11 have one of iFortituOe 
his chairs if it cost me twenty pounds.' 
Others may have a similar whim; and 
if so, why should they go to brokers, to 
give them the advantage which would 
be gained by the creditors?" 

The death of Lady Scott, when mat- 
ters were at their worst, is mentioned 
in the same heroic spirit. "Anne (the 
daughter) has behaved wonderfully un- 
der this severe visitation, but is, poor 
thing, much exhausted. If we had Mon- 
day over (the funeral) we should all be 
better." 

And when his health began to break 
under the strain of frantic writing, he 
wrote: 

"The hyasyenus which I was obliged 
to take for the gravel deranged me a 



ifortituDe good deal, and I believe was the cause 
of some inaccuracies of the copy; for 
one day I could neither write nor spell. 
This is over, thank God. I return proofs 
and copy for 'Woodstock' — I hope 
they will not smack of the apoplexy — I 
am going to take the hill in spite of the 



snow." 



There are dozens of such letters, with 
Gibson's replies, and Scott's own mem- 
oranda of business matters. They were 
handed down to Gibson's daughter, 
and now will leave San Francisco to 
take their place in Hugh Walpole's li- 
brary of Scott — linking the author who 
wrote ** Fortitude" with the author who 
showed it. 



8 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




